Current favorite of the series so far. For one thing, it didn't seem as if the emotional side and mystery side of the novel were competing or lacking. They both felt well fleshed out and balanced which made for a very satisfying book. I have to admit, I was wrong about the whodunit denouement and quite happy about it. ( )

Another episode in the Kinsey Millhone series. As this series has progressed, Sue Grafton has tried many tricks of the mystery/suspense trade. Most of them she has done quite effectively, in my opinion. This episode seemed to revolve around the red herring. Grafton did an excellent job pointing the finger at everyone in the story. Pretty much the only characters not blamed at some point are Kinsey herself and her on again/off again boyfriend Dietz. I enjoyed the characters and enjoyed watching the moving finger" of blame." ( )

This book is another entry in the alphabet murder mysteries with private investigator Kinsey Millhone. Kinsey Millhone is also the narrator throughout the series. I like Sue Grafton’s mysteries however, I feel after following each book throughout the series I’m just reading somewhat of a short story. Almost half the book is taken up by going over old characters and events that happened in one of the earlier books of the series.

This book is about sibling rivalry at its worst. It’s a case of a rich father dying and leaving a large inheritance to four sons. The disadvantage of settling the estate is that the father sent one of his sons away eighteen years earlier because he was a teenager who kept getting in trouble for marijuana and underage drinking, etc. Out of site out, of mind was his father’s motto. The son never came back and the family never looked for him but now the three brother’s concern is finding their brother dead or alive to collect their money. Millions of dollars is at stake.

This is where Kinsey Millhorn is hired to locate their missing brother. Yet, what the other brother’s didn’t tell her is that they want him dead so they can get all of the money for themselves. Does Kinsey find him? Of course! she does. Does he come home to try and reconcile with his brothers? Do his brothers finally accept him or do they find a means to abort him from the estate. Wait!! Kinsey did find him but was he dead or alive??( )

"M" is for money. Lots of it. "M" is for Malek Construction, the $40 million company that grew out of modest soil to become one of the big three in California and, uniquely, remains in family hands. Eighteen years ago, one of the sons of the family went missing. Now "M" is for Millhone, hired to trace that missing black sheep. Though Kinsey Millhone succeeds in her search, this prodical son will find no welcome at his family's table. And, in the all-too-common outcome of familial hate "M" winds up standing for murder.

Wikipedia in English (1)

Every investigation has a nature of its own, but there are certain shared characteristics," explains private eye Kinsey Millhone in her 13th alphabetic outing. "Here's what you hope for: a chance remark from the former neighbor on a skip-trace, a penciled notation on the corner of a document, an ex-spouse with a grudge, the number on an account, an item overlooked at the scene of a crime. Here's what you expect: the dead ends, bureaucratic bullheadedness, the cul-de-sacs, trails that go nowhere or simply fade into thin air, denials, prevarications, the blank-eyed stares from all the hostile witnesses. Here's what you know: that you've done it before and you have the toughness and determination to pull it off again. Here's what you want: justice. Here's what you'll settle for: something equivalent, the quid pro quo." All of the above are on display in Grafton's latest entry in her increasingly popular series set in a thinly-disguised Santa Barbara, as the virtually ageless Kinsey finds and loses a missing heir and gets back an old lover.

Kinsey Millhone, the normally bubbly California private investigator, is depressed in Sue Grafton's new alphabet mystery; so depressed she goes back with old flame Robert Dietz for a while. Bad move. Meanwhile she gets wrapped up in a family affair, locating the missing heir to a fortune and then protecting him from his ill-intentioned brothers. Typically, our woman Kinsey has little patience with the boys, but a firm grasp of family dysfunction.

Private investigator Kinsey Millhone is hired to track down Guy Malek, a man who walked away from his family eighteen years earlier and now stands to inherit part of his deceased father's forty-million dollar estate, but unfortunately, not everyone is eager to welcome home the prodigal son.… (more)